Asia on argyle

Site #9 description…

This is the spot - the bridge marking the train tracks at the Argyle Street CTA station - where, in 2013, the "Asia on Argyle" sign was installed.

The sign was meant to "brand" Argyle street and mark its history, since the 1970s, as a hub of thriving small businesses owned by migrants from various Asian countries.

The Making of Asia on Argyle

In the 1970s, the construction of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago's downtown displaced several Chinese American-owned businesses, as well as the Hip Sing Association, which, at the time, was a business organization. Its president, Jimmy Wong, was a migrant from Canton, China, who at the time owned several well-known restaurants. Wong spearheaded the Hip Sing Association's subsequent efforts to develop Argyle street in Uptown into a "New Chinatown" to rival the one growing in the south. At the time, Argyle street—comprising three blocks between Sheridan and Broadway—like Uptown in general, was notorious for being run-down and unable to attract businesses. By 1974, Wong and the Association had bought up most of Argyle and began setting up Chinese American businesses. However, health issues forced Wong to retire before he could see his plan to fruition. By 1979, Argyle had a new "unofficial mayor"—Charlie Soo.

Soo, another Chinese American businessman, started the Asian American Small Business Association to further Wong's vision. Soo pushed for Argyle's "facelift," the most prominent aspect of which was redeveloping the Argyle CTA station, and adding "Asian" touches like a pagoda to it. The station's dilapidated state at the time was emblematic of Uptown's condition. Uptown's large group of Vietnamese migrants after the Vietnam War set up businesses on Argyle alongside Chinese American establishments. Argyle became a small business hub, attracting customers seeking an experience of "Asian culture" to the restaurants, cafes, and other businesses.

With the Vietnamese influx and the flourishing of Vietnamese businesses on Argyle, it is no surprise that the latest in the line of Argyle's "unofficial" mayors is a Vietnamese migrant: Tam V. Nguyen. Nguyen left war-torn Vietnam in the 1970s, spending time in camps in Southeast Asia before arriving in the US in the early 1980s as a young man. He came to Chicago to work with the Vietnamese Association of Illinois and settled in Uptown, soon becoming a major figure in the Vietnamese migrant community there.

Nguyen has been at the forefront of the more recent wave of redevelopment in Uptown, marked by the "Asia on Argyle" sign outside the Argyle station.

The controversy around the sign highlighted the competing claims around Argyle and its establishment as the face of Asian migrant communities in Uptown. Many felt that the branding of Asia on Argyle fed into racial stereotypes for the sake of urban renewal. 

Critics of the sign raised also questions about the use of 260,000 dollars' worth of TIF-based investment in the sign.

More to the Story: Asian Lives in Uptown

Conversations around the sign, therefore, brought up a long-standing issue: general terms like "Asia on Argyle," Asian American," or earlier, "Indo-Chinese" often club together and erase the specific experiences of migrants and refugees from a variety of countries and ethnic groups.

Japanese migrants were among the earliest to Uptown as, after World War II, Japanese Americans who were forcefully interned in camps were resettled in various cities. Treated like enemies for no fault of their own in a country they had come to see as home, rebuilding community, for these migrants, was a painful and crucial process.

In the 1950s, the Chicago Buddhist Church, a major hub for the Japanese American community in Chicago, shifted from the south side to Uptown, signifying that a large community had settled there. The Chicago Buddhist Center was subsequently set up.

The Chinese Mutual Aid Association was founded in the 1980s by Duc Huang, a Chinese-origin businessman and his daughter, Yman Vien, who had both fled postwar Vietnam's communist regime. Over the years, the CMAA grew into a major inter-Asian community group, offering services and support to migrants and refugees from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and so on. Like the Vietnamese Association of Illinois, it offered crucial support to migrants who struggled with basic issues like language, employment, schooling, and housing. Given such massive barriers to survival, starting a business is not easy, but with community support, many Asian migrants could do so. For example, Nam Pham's pharmacy is one of the earliest surviving Vietnamese American businesses on Argyle.

As Kompha Seth reminds us, refugee groups to Uptown have very different experiences than that of migrants. They often flee their home countries with nothing, and bear the deep trauma of violence, authoritarian regimes, genocide, and civil war. Refugee groups in Uptown include the Hmong and Cambodians from Asia, Ethiopians and Eritreans from Africa, and Bosnian people from eastern Europe.

The Hmong were traditionally hill people who have faced ethnic persecution for centuries in Southeast Asia. In the Vietnam war, their assistance to the US worsened their situation, and they were allowed to settle in the US. Like most refugees, they had to wait for years in Thai refugee camps before they could move to the US. Hmong refugees in Uptown, particularly the women, became well-known for their pandau art, which involves using embroidered cloth to tell stories of migration, trauma, and survival.  For the Cambodians who escaped the mass killings of the Khmer Rouge regime, the Watt Khmer Metta in Uptown, a Cambodian Buddhist temple, became a center for community, as well as the Cambodian Association of Illinois.

Left: The Watt Khmer Metta; Source: Watt Khmer Metta Facebook Page. Right: A memorial in the Cambodian Association of Illinois for those who survived and succumbed to the killing fields of Cambodia, with the words, "We continue our journey with compassion, understanding, and wisdom." Source: cambodianassociation.org

Asia on Argyle and Urban Renewal

Asian migrant entrepreneurialism in Uptown is clearly built on diverse stories of survival, resilience, and community. But attempts to "brand" Argyle street often erase these dynamics. Narratives that pit the businesses of Asia on Argyle against "gang crime" and the poor and homeless people of Uptown risk playing into some of the historical dynamics we have explored in the tour so far. We saw how safety and crime have been used as means to divert city funds to increased policing and gentrification rather than public health, education, and employment for poor communities, which improve neighborhoods without simply displacing the poor.

The Argyle Shared Street Project is illustrative. In a development project that saw Asian American businesses collaborating with the city to make Argyle street more friendly for pedestrian shoppers and businesses, the project removed curbs and beautified the street. It is clear that the needs prioritized were that of the gentrifiers of Uptown and community outsiders who visited Argyle street to consume "Asian culture." Responses to a survey conducted by community organizers are revealing in this regard:

Recent developments on Argyle street like the shared street project and the Argyle Night Market, where local vendors set up stalls to promote their businesses, raise many prickly and contentious questions: who, and what, does 'Asia on Argyle" represent? Whose needs does it serve? What does this mean for Uptown as a whole? Is it the best way to do justice to Asian-origin communities in Uptown?

A new generation of Asian Americans in Uptown are, on the one hand, emerging as young entrepreneurs on Argyle, and on the other, engaging in activism that invests in community-building, as well as asking some of these difficult questions. 

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